Process of extracting essences and tinctures from vanilla-beans.



ELTON M. HOWELL, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

PROCESS OF EXTRACTING ESSENCES AND TIHQTU'EES FROM VANILLA-BEANS.

pecification of Application filed July 11,

possible strength and yield of such essences from a given quantity ofsuch materials.

At present the usual agent employed in extractlng such tinctures andessences 1s alcohol. This alcohol, as used at the present time, isordinarily either used pure or mixed With Water. At the present timesuch alcohol or diluted alcohol is used at the ordinary atmospherictemperature. lx ere the alcohol used in a heated form a largerpercentage of the essences and tinctures would be extracted from the rawmaterial, but heretofore it has been found impracticable to use alcoholof a high temperature, except in a still, because of its volatilecharacter r' highly heated, in other words, when higaly heated itvaporizes and entails waste 0 the spirit, and poor results follow. Andwhen distilled the resultant essence or tincture is of a cloudy andunsatisfactory quality from a commercial standpoint.

The mode of practicing my mvention is as follows, reference being had tothe accompanying drawing by Way of illustration of apparatus suitablefor carrying out in ess. kettle J of a height approximately of seventyinches, and of a diameter of twenty inches. Around the lower end of thiskettle, for distance of about one-sixth of its height, is an ordinarysteam jacket Q. The bottom proper of the kettle, above tlie steainjacket,

has an aperture in its center leading a pipe K down through the centerof the steam jacket and at the lower end of this pipe is a valve F.steam jacket through a valved pipe D and is permitted to escape througha valved pipe E. A test cool: G is also provided at the side of thevessel for withdraw mg portions of the 3 solvent for determining itstemperature and degree of saturation. Any ordinary kettle with similarsteam heating and valve apparatus may be used, but I have found a kettleof the above proportions to give the host rel suits. In the kettleproper I place the ra materials from which l ulsh to extract the essenceor tincture, 1n a ground up form, to-

. anhatprocl ordlnarily use a cyhndrical covered 5 Steam is introducednto this;

Letters Patent.

Serial Ito. 325,733.

gethcr with a mixture of alcohol and water 5 consisting of approximately40% alcohol and i enter. Steai'n. 1s then turned on in the 1 steam ariot. The alcohol above the mass i of materials gradually infiltratesslowly through the mass of raw material and the jsaid mass of material,firth the alcoholic mixture, which is slowly mixing with and over it,becomes gradually heated. Care is taken to prevent the alcohol reachingthe vaporization stage and the mass and the superimposed alcoholicmixture heats slowly toward the top.

l l t a temperature of approximately 100 degrees, i turn ed the heat andpermit the whole mass l to cool to the atmospheric tomperaturef By lthis time a large portion of the alcohol mix- 3' ture has hecome mixedrcith the ground up raw; material in the bottom of the kettle, and Idraw it off by opening the valve at the base and permit g it topercolate into a vessel. 1 then pour the liquid so dn vn into the l\:ettie, turn on the steam as before and repeat the operation exactlybefore, turning off the steam as soon as the upper part of the alcoholicmixture has again attained a tempcraturc of approximately 100 degrees.his operation is repeated from six to ten times until practically all ofthe essence is extracted.

She quantities for the alcoholic mixture i may vary. Pure alcohol may heused with good results, but it iore economical to use the mixture withthe minimum quantity of alcohol, and I find my process will give goodresults with a dilution containing 40% .of alcohol.

The temperature mentioned (1.00 degrees l ahre cit) may vary, s long asvaporization does not set in, but I have found the nest results Whereapproximately that temperature at the top is the limit.

it hat I claim for my invention over present processes is that by itsuse a larger per- 1 ceutage of solid.) e constituents of the vanillabeans can he extracted tha: cy present methods; a quality of rawmaterial, which cannot be worlrcd at a profit under present methods, canhe used and a first class product obtained hecaus a much ger percentageof the essences is extracted by 1y method, and also by my invention theextraction of the essences and tinctures from any given quantity ofmaterial can be all done in a 1 much horter time, at a great saving oflahor;

l furthermore, there is a large saving in alcohol when the topapproaches aloneover all other methods. Furthermore, the use of a columnof alcoholic dilution of the approximate height as indicated, prolongsthe time taken to raise the temperature at the top to a point Where itvaporizes, thus prolonging the time during which the raw material issubjected to the extracting power of the heated alcohol or dilution.

I claim:

The method of extracting the soluble eonstituents of vanilla beans, inwhich method a mass of raw ground vanilla beans in. a suitable closedvessel is subjected to the solvent action of dilute alcohol, consistingin main taining a column of said solvent in contact with and above saidbeans, the diameter of said column bearing to its length the ap lOXlmateratio of two to seven, heating the cumportion of said column till thetemperature of the top of the column of solvent approximates 100 F, thencooling the column of solvent and beans to that of the surroundingatmosphere, percolating the liquid portion through the ground mass andreturning the percolate to the said mass to complete the extractionsubstantially as described.

ELTON M. HUVJELL. In presence of- JOHN J OCoNNELL, GERTRUDE K. BRENNAN.

